This is in essence a live document, that is to say that it will (should) be updated when need be to explain things, for everyone to keep track of the characters, etc. Basically a Q&A + some answers to questions you honestly never had and never probably would have.

You don't need to read this, but it should help refresh your memory after several months of me not updating or whatever.

Also, it has random supplementary material that may or may not ever actually be relevant to the story but might help you get into the world I'm trying to make here.

NOTE: THIS ISN'T HANBURGER. That is a different continuity with a different set of rules and functionally different characters. 'Can't speak in front of the class' Plague in Hanburger is not the same guy as 'believes he is destined to be alone and has a tendency to gnaw on himself' Fechin in this story despite them going by the same name at times.

Edited: 1 time

Don't ask about time period. Please.

I don't know what time period it is, but I do know that they have large cities and apartment and cars. Because people are bound to have a massive shock when going into Lazarus anyway because it's basically just medieval fantasy, what era phones they have or whatever is basically irrelevant unless it's current day where most of the problems would likely arise from everyone texting and then someone not in the loop seeing this way too elaborate 'roleplay' planning with no actual roleplaying being done.

Basically, this is before phones had access to just about every feature under the sun, and if they are mobile at all, they're still giant blocks that only adults primarily have access to. (Does anyone actually remember when kids weren't expected to have phones and tablets at 9? Just me?)

Characters (listed in order of appearance (most of the time)) + any interesting notes about them

(Note that characters such as Rapier will likely never have their normal identify announced within the story, therefore they may very well disappear as more important characters come and fill up the space)

(Left = given name, right = code name)

(Nothing = anything means that character has no 'counterpart', let's just call it; they are a Lazarian and cannot appear in the normal world. Lazarians generally have names based on things that exist in nature-Tree, Moon, Fire, Gold. Humans have names that make less sense/animals/manmade objects-Letha, Dog, Shovel (respectively))

Chevel (Which has a meaning that was totally accidental, I swear) = Shovel

? = Rapier (Shield actually took Rapier's appearance back when I was still deciding names. I decided to add Rapier in so Shovel wouldn't go from interacting with Shield to interacting with Shield using a different name. It confused Sim (Twiddlesticks, whatever), also. Ultimately, I needed someone else to fill the role and who else but the blacksmith from Hanburger that caused many a death of Shovel's?)

Shiela = ? (Yes yes, you probably all know who it is, just roll with it for now)

Ace = Propeller

TBD/Character has not appeared in-story yet so it isn't relevant right now = Treasure

Donovan = Specter = ScaryNinjaBananaSexyDorkyLivingWimpyChibiSourCutieKissyKittyGirlyChocoBatPancakeMaple
(Yes, this is confusing let me explain: Donovan is the original, okay? He's the one to go around doing the interacting with Ace, but when he enters Lazarus, he basically becomes a twisted version of Dissociative Identify disorder. Scary is basically the dominate personality you see with Donovan, cool and confident, etc. Pancake, Maple, Sour all have a love for food, Girly is basically an extreme manifestation of his feminine side, you get the idea. All of them can fight well enough on their own but Specter… Specter is basically short term GOD mode that can only be used if they are all together and alive, as they must fuse back into Dovovan for it to work, putting together all their strength and magic in the process. Generally is a last resort. If you can outlast him, you're basically free to do whatever you want because he has no strength left to fight regardless of how much he effort he exerted while together.
No one's entirely sure why he splits though, don't ask him about that)

Nothing = Gold

? = Kiaken (I keep spelling this name wrong. Also, typing it into google generally ends with it correcting to Kiaoken. No. It's a dagger. Although it is from Japan.)

TBD/Character has not appeared in-story yet so it isn't relevant right now = Mole

Nothing = Spy (I will admit this character only exists because of a lapse in judgement on my part. I had a working version of the story where Shovel was Shovel in school, but in Lazarus he was Spade. Shield was Aegis, Propeller was Fan (I think), Treasure was Gem, I believe I left Scary and his others alone because Specter as he is now didn't exist and I didn't see a conflict with the name, and Mole... was Spy. Get it, because of the English language and Mole meaning an animal or a deep cover agent? I thought it was pretty good at the time. Later I was revising the story with the current naming conventions and I had no fucking clue who this guy was. So, for the hell of it, I made them into who they are now, only realizing later what I'd done. I love stupid accidents sometimes.)

TBD/Character has not appeared in-story yet so it isn't relevant right now = King

Mona = Letha (in Greek, Letha means forgetful. That is not the meaning that I was going for. Looking back now, Zila definitely sounds cooler, but if things go the way that I very vaguely want them to...)

Fechin = Plague (because it was requested, Fechin means Little Raven in Irish. Yeah, it's not too deep. For those who are curious, originally, I wanted a name meaning something ironic in the beginning that would slowly come to fit later on, something along the lines of Potential, because that's the character to me. A lot of potential, but no one notices (like how no one would look up the name and figure out what it meant). Alas, no such name has apparently ever existed, so I had to give that up. I played with names meaning death, but none sounded natural. Das (Servant or Slave) sounded promising considering what I plan to do with him, but it looked like it was more a prefix that a name, and nothing I added sounded right. I also briefly returned to names that held ironic meanings, as I found somewhere that Dillion meant Ray of Hope, which didn't sound terrible, but the sound of it didn't fit. I ended up with Blaise (Lisp or Stutter), Cameron (Crooked Nose), Fechin, and Corbin (Little Raven/Crow) after narrowing at bit. I really liked the sound of Fechin, even though it didn't have the meaning that I quite wanted; the more I used it, the more it really just naturally slotted itself in my mind as his name.)

Reize = TBD/Character has not appeared in-story yet so it isn't relevant right now

Nothing = Moon

Nothing = Tree

? = Dog (Fun fact: Dog in Hanburger ended up as one of Mona's sorta not really friends in Lazarus after Treasure took her for his group (back when the process was nonsensical as fuck). He was the other new recruit. A big role was never planned for him; he was more there to help her adjust and so people wouldn't ask where the other guy was. It seemed appropriate to keep him as part of Treasure's gang.)

Groups

Crimson Cloaks (Named before SoT I swear): Headed by Scary; where most of the characters seem to be honestly. Highly regarded because of the existence of the Spooks, who are basically an army by themselves.

Digging Divers (Named mostly because alteration is hard and it sounded good): Headed by Treasure; has less members than the CC or the GG but makes up for it through sheer brute force and also stealing people away like a bunch of assholes.

Green Gallivanters (Also named the Flirty Flyboys): Headed by Propeller; is not weak by any means, but is typically forgotten about in lieu of the former two groups, who have their own selling points that are technically far better.

Royal Rulers: Headed by King; has no one else backing him. Everyone basically just leaves him be because he's not a threat despite him putting together an actually pretty impressive fortress.

Lazarus rules/how this shit all works

#1: When outside of Lazarus, you are on a timer. Take Chevel in the first chapter. He pops in at the beginning with 20 minutes left. By staying in Lazarus (work is not required but you will get rewarded for it and it gives you something to do) that timer will reverse. As to be explained in the second chapter, if you are under two days, then for every one minute spent inside of Lazarus, you gain back two. Just to make sure that you can sleep through at least most of the night.

It is mostly encouraged to keep a stockpile of time, as Spy will only pause your time if, say, you're in a coma or under near 24 hour watch.

Running out of time can be fatal, although not immediately. Instead, the timer goes into negatives and you become more and more ill. How long you can last like this depends on how healthy you are otherwise (you're less likely to survive for 3+ weeks if you're morbidly obese and have recently been struck by lightning than if you're a perfectly average otherwise healthy young lad) (whether this actually helps people lose weight is entirely up to you, I'm not going to go around calling anyone morbidly obese. Or obese in general. Not really my style.)

#2: Lazarians do not have a say in the otherworlders appearing. There is not currently a reason within the story itself for why humans gained access at all to Lazarus, and frankly I'm not sure I will ever add one. A lot of them feel like their world has become a plaything, but because of their natural competitiveness towards each other that allowed for the groups to be formed at all, they have a hard time banding with enemy Lazarians in order to try and force the otherworlders into seeking a way to leave forever.

Spy seeming to like the otherworlder's antics help nothing.

That is not to say this will stay the same forever.

#3: Everyone wears either a helmet or a mask, generally depending on their status as intro or extrovert. This is not a set rule by any real means, more an observation.

Eyes will change color to reflect mood of the wearer; black = neutral (or unconscious), orange = scared, purple = confused, red = angry, blue = happy I'm probably forgetting some key moods sorry

#4: Spy is basically the closest thing to a god that Lazarus has. They can be in multiple places at once and watches the humans jump back and forth. Is the only one to know that Mona is Letha and Chevel is Shovel, etc. etc.

#5: Peace meetings can and will be held, usually in times of war but also in times of peace to discuss something important to them. Ex: Gold wanting to form him own group.

#6: Slave labor is a thing, and is employed often by the Digging Divers to make up for the lack of members.

#7: Leaders of a group are allowed to change the color of a person's crystal. Slightly dubious for the other Spooks because they don't go around stealing people, because they are part of a whole, but technically they are separate people. What color their crystal is dictates what group they are a part of and therefore what base they will appear in when they return to Lazarus/respawn (for the Lazarians)-red = CC, blue = DD, green = GG, yellow = RR

Jason: I do see a difference in upset and frustrated, that's why there are two separate words. Upset means I want to clam up and will only communicate to you in short bursts if I do more than hum or grunt. It's what happens when you remind me that I fuck a lot of shit up. Upset, for me, is more sad angry than annoyed angry. Frustrated means I'm getting really snappy, and I kinda want to bang my head against the wall because you can't understand that I don't fucking hate you or whatever it is that you seem to believe, but I'm not going to really blow up on you unless you're really grating my nerves.

Look, man, I get indecisiveness, I really do, my dad always gets real pissy if I ever tell him I don't know what I want for dinner or for my birthday or something. Only once has 'I don't know' been a happy thing for me. But in the case of what is effectively a yes or a no, please at least give it a vague attempt. I know you have an opinion, you have expressed it before.

Well, if you're secure in the idea that you're fine…

What I mean is that you have each section split by the use of the enter/return key. But in that instance, you decided to put that which I have said frustrates me (still no names) next to can we be friends again without putting it on a new line, like you somehow think that poking an irritated cat with a stick will make it love you. The logic does not exist in that context, right?

R2: 1. Answered
2. Answered. Hopefully.
3. Not entirely sure what you wanted to know, but I have provided the explanation that Fechin is Plague so… there you go.
4. The whole of his life makes sense to me in that it's basically another way of saying forever and ever.
5. Not sure why you gave your own description of him for seemingly no reason… Also, I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean by that, but the explanation for what I think you asked is in the character sheet.
6. Never thought about it.
7. That period was intentional. Adding Specter was sort of an afterthought, but not really enough to warrant an ellipse.
8. No comment.
9. Technically there as a Girly in Hanburger as well, she would have been introduced as of C8, which I might as well add would have been a school dance episode. I do plan to revive this idea later on.
10. Technically 'you don't have say' isn't wrong and when you're frustrated words come out wrong, you know? Also, it's something Lkc and I joked about back when we messaged solely over FF. I don't want to know what Girlycard is.

R3: There is a 'god' sort of figure but they don't really stop everyone from running around doing whatever and they don't force some sort of religion. Closest thing to a central authority is that or when the leaders all get together for a peace meeting. As for prior to the humans arriving, then no one really had any reason to rally under one banner.

Hopefully that answers everything.